Italian jewellery closes 2025 in sharp decline: 'Unprecedented challenge'

The drop had already occurred in the first half of 2025, which closed with exports down 13.9% on a trend basis, and the first nine months had marked -15.2%. For the gold and silver-jewellery sector in Italia, 2025 closed with a further worsening of the negative trend: on the basis of the processing carried out by the Confindustria Federorafi Study Centre based on ISTAT data, in fact, over the 12 months, exports fell by 18.9% in value compared to the period January-December 2024, for 12.5 billion euro. Considering also quantities, with reference only to wear jewellery taken as a whole, over the entire 2025 period, exported volumes showed a significant decrease compared to 2024, equal to -22.7%.

Weighing on these figures were the increases in the price of gold and other precious metals, US tariff policies and geopolitical tensions, with inevitable repercussions on the end consumer. The negative impact of the trend in exports to Turkey and sales to the United States was significant, while exports to Switzerland (hub of top brands) and the United Arab Emirates remained in positive territory, although they are now at the centre of the new tensions in the Middle East.

In the sector's major districts, exports in 2025 will close with an average annual decrease equal to -18.1%: Arezzo is confirmed in first place among Italian provinces in terms of export value, despite having seen a decrease equal to -40.9% compared to 2024; with exports of almost 4.6 billion euros, it still ensures 34.8% of total sectoral exports from Italia. The Tuscan province's performance is being significantly affected by the flow of valuables destined for Turkey. In second place, the province of Vicenza is bucking the trend compared to the national figure and that of Arezzo, registering an increase of +6.4%, accounting for 20.3% of the national total (approximately 2,655 million euro). Alessandria (Valenza) is in third position: in line with Vicenza, contrary to the national trend, it records a positive variation, growing by 27.3%; the Piedmontese province thus covers 17.6% of the total exported in the World. Finally, exports of the Naples and Caserta production district are down by 2.8%.

"The year 2025 closes as we had unfortunately predicted, i.e. with a significant loss of export quotas of almost 3 billion euro compared to 2024, moreover in a bullish period for precious metal quotations, which therefore makes the situation even more worrying," says Maria Cristina Squarcialupi, president of Confindustria Federorafi, in a note. These figures concern exports, but for a sector that exports almost 90% of what it produces, the sectoral turnover will also have very similar dynamics, which we will analyse in detail as soon as the data are available. This was the trend in 2025 where, although within a negative picture, we could see some signs of a turnaround, such as the timid recovery in recent months (but still in negative territory) of performance in the United States and a restart in the Emirates. Today, 90 days later, however, the picture has changed again with the new US tariffs in February and the third war in the Gulf area calling everything into question. The ongoing tensions, including the Russian-Ukrainian war, insist on countries that account for almost 40% of Italian jewellery exports, and evidently the repercussions will be all the more devastating the longer these conflicts last, the unpredictability of US protectionist policies and the volatility of precious metal prices. In such an uncertain framework, I do not venture to make any forecasts for the current year: we will already be very good if we manage to limit the damage compared to the reduction percentages that we already recorded in 2025'.

These concerns were at the centre of recent meetings held by Confindustria Federorafi with the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ICE, to whom proposals were presented to study new routes and new instruments for the internationalisation of gold and jewellery companies: 'The responses were positive,' continues Squarcialupi, 'and we expect them to be rapidly implemented. On the internal policies front, we are coordinating with the other associations in the fashion and accessories sector to relaunch extraordinary interventions to strengthen social shock absorbers, credit support, and bureaucratic simplification. We are facing a probably unprecedented challenge and a cycle of forced adjustment, but my confidence remains in the ability to react of the national gold and jewellery district, which will also be able to overcome this phase by focusing on the value of the 'beautiful and well-made' and on the ingenuity and creativity of Italian entrepreneurs'.